The common single-dosage blister package comprises a sheet with transparent bubble chambers for holding a tablet, capsule or the like. The ultimate goal is to produce such a package which is child resistant, but adult friendly. Some of the designs produced heretofore achieve this goal better than others. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,924,746, a package is described in which a scored tab is pulled off of the packaging, leaving a separation area whereby a single laminate may be pulled away from a bubbled carrier layer to expose the product. Similarly, in the packaging disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,921,805, bending a tab reveals an unsealed area at which a laminate may be peeled away from the product-containing carrier layer. A similar, but somewhat more complicated opening procedure is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,835,995, in accordance with which a single dose package is first separated along score lines from other such packages. On the separated package, a tear-off strip must then be torn away along another set of score lines. A laminate may then be peeled away from the product-containing carrier to reveal the product. This design also includes selective bonding between layers to produce a starting region to begin peeling one layer from another.
Another form of packaging includes the bottom side of the bubble sheet being covered with a rupturable layer of foil or similar material. The user depresses tile transparent bubble, thereby forcing a tablet against the foil layer which is then ruptured. Further pressure on the bubble expels the tablet through the ruptured foil. Some packages couple this rupturable layer concept with a peelaway step. For example, in the packaging of U.S. Pat. No. Re 29,705, access to the blister chamber is attained first by pulling a tab which separates first and second layers of a laminate, and second by pushing the product through the second, rupturable laminate layer which is bonded to the bottom of the blister chamber. In accordance with U.S. Pat. No. 3,912,081, pulling on a tab separates a section of a first layer along score lines from the second layer, and the product is then pushed through the rupturable second layer. In a similar type of package, paperboard sheet is interposed between the rupturable layer and the layer having the scored, peelaway section. The intermediate sheet defines openings corresponding to the product placements such that, when a section of the peelaway layer is peeled away, the product may be pushed through the rupturable layer and through the corresponding opening in the intermediate paperboard sheet. These layers are bonded together except for the area between the intermediate sheet and the peel away section.
All of these types of packages are an attractive curiosity for young children. What is needed is an improved single-dosage, blister-type package which limits the ability of children to solve the puzzle of getting to the visible pill, but which does not unduly bar adults from access.